Inglourious Basterds

(Quentin Tarantino/2009/USA & Germany)

Tarantino tackles World War II in an escapade that’s very much indebted to comic books, as usual, and also films like the Dirty Dozen and Merril’s Marauders. The stand out performance is Hans Lamda as the “Jew Hunter” Nazi whose casual menace is palpable. Each chapter is a set piece much like Pulp Fiction or indeed any Tarantino movie really but this isn’t just business as usual. Tarantino is employing his style with a level of self awareness and tact learned from his previous films and he’s at the height of his powers. Each time I see this film I get a little closer to considering it his best. He manages to balance the adult horror of fascism and violence of war with the little boy excitement and adventure of those old comics like Warlord, Victor or Commando. Neither suffocates the other and the result is an exciting and funny war movie that doesn’t side step the terrible reality and brutality of humans killing each other.

(3.5/5)

The Keeping Room

(Daniel Barber/2014/USA)

During the US Civil War a General Sherman employed a campaign of terror and “total war” against civilian infrastructure that could be considered beneficial to the confederate army – railroads, mills, factories etc. The March to the Sea by the Union army employed “bummers” to scout ahead of the advancing army foraging and looting supplies. Daniel Barber uses this historical event to frame his film which is essentially a home invasion flick. He does the truth an injustice though as it is widely documented that the campaign, which psychologically succeeded in breaking the confederacy and their supporters and resulted in the end of the war, was conducted generally in a disciplined and controlled way. The two bummers on display here then could be taken to be an extreme exception rather than a rule for what happened but that’s just my bug bear with historical misrepresentations. Perish the thought that historical accuracy could get in the way of a good yarn. The film itself is wonderfully shot in darkened, stark tones and the sense of calm of the countryside being encroached upon and destroyed by the advancing terror of Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller’s bummers is ever present. 

Having rode off from their arrival and subsequent slaughter at a neighbouring farm Augusta (Brit Marling) battens down the hatches on the house she shares with her younger sister, Louise, and their female slave, Mad. The three women are forced to defend themselves from the attack of the two nasty yolks and what plays out is a brutal battle of the sexes. There are fine performances all round and as I said it is a good looking film but the script let’s it down; unevenly paced at times with some unnecessary sub plotting its repeated breaking of the tension gets a little wearing. Having expended the time to build the atmosphere and characters it becomes predictable at the finish as just another home invasion movie with the threat of violence from men towards vulnerable women the crux of the drama. Perfectly watchable, at times gripping but ultimately a bit disappointing.

(2.5/5)

Battle: Los Angeles

(Jonathon Liebesman/2011/USA)

An initially decent premise devolves into run of the mill war movie stuff with a gang of soldiers in skirmish after skirmish without any real development of plot. It tries to be a visceral war experience in the context of an alien invasion which is fine but without any knowledge of why the invasion is happening and the only motivation being to stay alive the only story is people running around trying to do just that, stay alive. This works in a film like Independence Day because the time is taken to develop both characters and the tension of unexpected, unexplained alien presence before the attack. The tub thumping, glorious American soldiers saving the day hokum just adds to the annoyance of a vacuous script. It’s got lots of explosions and action with not much else going on.

(1/5)

Ran

(Akira Kurosawa/1985/Japan)

Ran is a Japanese Sengoku period epic set in the 16^th Century showing the results of a decision by a powerful warlord to effectively retire and split his lands and wealth between his three sons. It is a lavish film, full of colour and pomp and cut through with one of the most theatrical of performances in any of Kurosawa’s films in the form of Tatsuya Nakadai as the warlord Hidetora. His facial expressions and make up become increasingly pronounced as the story unfolds to carve out a visage of weariness and tragedy marked by shadowy bags under eyes, gaunt cheeks and rattling eye sockets. He is mesmerising at points and invariably accompanied by his fool, Kyoami, who offers a jumping, giggling counterpoint to his slow descent into madness.

The film closely parallels Shakespeare’s Lear in both themes and story. It opens with a shot of clouds and blue sky which presage the decision to abdicate and the upset that ensues. The clouds appear repeatedly before something terrible happens throughout the rest of the film. Nature or more accurately natural law, justice and power are underlying concerns of the story. One change Kurosawa makes is from Lear’s daughters to Hidetora’s sons but he retains strong female characters in the wives of the warlord’s sons. They are crucial to the plot and the theme around power. Ran is a sprawling family drama of sorts that examines the failings and struggles of being human. It is a sumptuous and at times violent film and is certainly one of Kurosawa’s best easily standing next to, if not surpassing, his earlier Samurai films of the 50’s and 60’s.

(4/5)

Dunkirk

(Christopher Nolan/2017/UK, USA, France, Netherlands)

Eschewing dialogue in favour of telling the story through sound and vision Dunkirk is an ambitious and artistic undertaking that successfully puts you in the midst of the tension and terror of the mass extraction of allied troops from Northern France in 1940. As an added touch it takes three timelines of differing length and viewpoints that cross at a couple of points and weaves them together over the course of two hours. So we have a week at the beach with the troops awaiting transport, a day at sea with civilians aiding the Navy and an hour in the air with a spitfire pilot defending the ships from enemy bombers. It sounds confused and certainly there is jumping back and forth in time but it all makes sense and each narrative unfurls and reveals aspects of the other two with a dawning sense of the scale of the operation involved. It’s a superb movie that blossoms before you like a flower. The minimal dialogue is affecting and the score by Hans Zimmer is brilliant and immersive and relays the rising panic and fear and tension as everyone waits like sitting ducks for either a boat to take them home or a German plane to strike terror from the skies. The desperation of the situation pervades the film like an odour of impending doom and the score is absolutely central to this. It’s a wholly visceral cinematic experience and a film unlike any other I’ve seen from a mainstream director in quite a while. Christopher Nolan has been one to watch for some time now but Dunkirk is an achievement that makes him an essential director to follow.

(4/5)

The Cranes Are Flying

(Mikhail Kalatozov/1957/Russia) 

After Stalin’s brain exploded in 1953 and Russia started emerging from the shadow of his cult of personality there was a welcome relaxing of constrictions on those involved in cultural production. Film makers could finally present ideas that weren’t necessarily in line with the party view. If you look at any of Kalatozov’s post war films prior to 1953 there is a tension between the ideology of the narrative and the formal structure of the cinematography. By the time he came to make The Cranes Are Flying he had established a working relationship with Sergey Urusevsky, one of Russia’s finest cinematographers, and was in a position to introduce ideas in his films which were far more critical than previously allowed. He could also dally with melodramatic forms discovered during his recent time spent in Hollywood. I mention these things by way of a preamble because The Cranes Are Flying is one of the greatest Russian films ever made. It begins a thread through post war Russian cinema that takes in Ballad of a Soldier(1959), Nine Days of One Year(1962) and Ivan’s Childhood(1962) and represents an era of innovation and experiment in film making.

Before any credits we see Veronika and Boris hand in hand beside the Moskva River. They see cranes in a V formation in the sky and Boris recites a rhyming couplet, “Cranes like ships, sailing in the sky. White ones and grey ones, with long beaks they fly.” The image of the cranes will book end the film, traditionally in Russian literature and folklore they represent hope and optimism. All that happens between those bookends is a falling away from and a return to the hope the cranes symbolize. The crux of the film is the love story of Veronika and Boris which is interrupted by the war. Boris volunteers for the army and goes to the front. He becomes listed as missing in action and Veronika is left at home with no communication for years. She becomes involved with Mark, Boris’ brother, although it is out of exhaustion at his advances than anything else. It’s an unhappy marriage and her hope for word from Boris never flags. When the war ends every character on screen has been indelibly changed by their experiences. It is a film that concentrates on the effect of war on those left at home as friends and family go off to fight.

The first section is visually brilliant with many shots framing the couple in angles of architecture. There are vistas of characters from low down with the camera angled up. One striking scene is in a bombed house with Veronika running up a ragged stairwell contrasting with the stairwell and steps from earlier in the film when she and Boris dallied, in love and happy. The framing and mise en scene constantly reflect the emotions occurring on screen. Urusevsky's camera colonizes the emotional space of the characters. However the most extraordinary scene is when Boris leaves. Beginning with the family as he says his goodbyes there is a cut to an incredible handheld shot following Veronika as she disembarks a bus and runs through crowded streets as she attempts to see Boris before his train leaves. It's a short shot and cuts back to an emotional exchange between Boris' parents before showing Boris waiting for her to arrive at the station. It is breathtaking cinema.

The middle section of the film veers into the melodramatic and is striking for that as it would not have been a common genre in Russian film at the time. The emotive scenes in the work house and with Veronika and the young boy, another Boris, all build towards the closing scenes at the end of the war. The resolution of Veronika’s story as she accepts her fate and celebrates, through tears, with the crowds that have gathered to welcome the soldiers home sees her return to a state of hopefulness for the future and we see the cranes again. It’s a magnificent film blending structural symbolism, party idealism and emotional drama to produce a critique of war that transcends any distinctly Russian outlook and attains a universal human appeal.

(4.5/5)

Lone Survivor

(Peter Berg/2013/USA) 

Based on real events but widely accepted as exaggerating some details Lone Survivor focuses on action over character and as a result loses out on any real emotional punch. The photos of real marines which pepper the opening and closing credits make for an awkward grab at our heartstrings; that sense of pride in men going to fight a good war instead of coming across as genuine becomes ham fisted as the main characters are paper thin. Without any depth to the men involved in the mission, which is a failure almost from the start, the intensity of the fire fight becomes the crux of the film and reduces the movie to a mere action flick dressed up in stars and stripes chest beating. It’s a pity because it’s an extraordinary and sad story of a mission gone awry and could have been a far greater reflection on the US interests and actions in Afghanistan. But it does capture the ferociousness and panic of a close quarters gun battle in a quite visceral way, it does that one thing really well.

(2/5)

Dunkirk

(Leslie Norman/1958/UK) 

Recounting both a British army units retreat through German occupied France towards Dunkirk for evacuation and a civilian war effort in Britain which sees commercial ships take part in the evacuation operation, Dunkirk very effectively represents the dread and chaos of World War II’s Operation Dynamo. The early parts of the film build the characters and the sense of camaraderie to the extent that their experience of the evacuation becomes visceral. It’s a very good portrayal of a singular event in the war. A couple of interesting facts around the film for music fans are the cover of The Smiths single How Soon Is Now? is a still of Sean Barrett as the character Frankie and also the beach scenes were shot at Camber Sands not far from the All Tomorrow’s Parties site.

(2.5/5)

Tank 432

(Nick Gillespie/2016/UK)

The presence of Ben Wheatley as a producer makes this of immediate interest and it is obvious why he would have a hand in this film, Gillespie having worked with him previously and it being a story rooted in paranoid and hallucinatory psychological horror similar to his own works Kill List and A Field in England. Tank 432 however does not live up to the excitement that Wheatley’s name arouses because Nick Gillespie fails to generate the same engagement in the audience. First of all there’s no context, we are thrown into the midst of a mercenary mission that is going awry, there’s some weird shit going down and then they find a tank. An abandoned, broken down tank that they get locked into and cue the paranoid, claustrophobic to do that is Tank 432. The characters are paper thin, eliciting little sympathy and the whole thing putters along without really going anywhere. It’s unfortunate because Gillespie shoots a good film, Tank 432 looks good, the eerie visual ambience is spot on but the plot doesn’t match up and it’s all a bit hysterical without any good reason to be. Mark it down as disappointing.

(1.5/5)

The Keep

(Michael Mann/1983/USA)

An atmospheric, gothic horror that takes place during World War II, The Keep is a deviation from Michael Mann’s usual style and a film he has since disowned due to studio interference and editing. It says a lot that it doesn’t have a video or DVD release, so the only way you’ll see it is on one of its rare TV screenings (Film4 have shown it twice in the last year or so if you’re interested). Although a commercial flop on release it has over time gathered a bit of cult appreciation. It is certainly flawed due to the studio enforced edits, some of the story sequencing doesn’t quite make sense, but it has a quality and tone that surpasses these flaws and makes it something beguiling to watch. The story is of a Nazi soldier division securing a pass in the Romanian mountains by occupying an old keep outside a village in the pass. The soldiers unlock an ancient evil within the keep and a struggle ensues involving the demonic force, the Nazis, the villagers, an elderly historian and his daughter and another strange man who arrives on a mission known only to him. There’s a lot of backlighting, mystical mists and a superb soundtrack from Tangerine Dream. The effects are obviously quite dated but it has lost none of its essence or mood even after being savaged in the editing room and that is testament to Mann as a film maker. To be honest I don’t think I’ve seen another film quite like it so if you get the chance watch it.

(3.5/5)

Ice Cold in Alex

(J. Lee Thompson/1958/UK)

Four army medical staff are separated from the main convoy during an evacuation to Alexandria behind British lines in the North African desert conflict of World War II. Their solo run across the desert to reach safety involves a series of dangerous episodes which make for two hours of war drama dripping in sweat and tension. Shot on location in Libya the heat and effort onscreen is real and makes for a film that comes very close to the actual experience of desert warfare. Naturalistic sounds rather than the usual orchestral score heighten the tension and sense of place. Both screen and audio combine in an ambient realism that enhances the unfolding drama. You can pretty much taste the cold beers in the final scene.

(3.5/5)

War Horse

(Stephen Spielberg/2011/USA)

Originally a children’s book told from the point of view of a horse sold to the British army during World War I, this film understandably introduces more conventional narratives for human characters to blend with the story of the horse. It is closer in spirit to the theatrical adaptation of the book than the book itself I’d hazard. A pastoral feeling permeates the movie and Spielberg creates a highly emotive story and sense of place. Lighting, music and sets all combine to give an operatic or theatrical feel throughout. The relationship between Albert and Joey is slowly built up to be used further on to pluck the heart strings. War Horse is not short of style and feeling but it can’t help being a bit of a ham fisted story. The action onscreen becomes less and less believable as the film goes on, no doubt more suited to the high drama of a live stage setting than the cinema. But even with this concession the story on screen is a bit flat. There are only so many orchestral cues, telling you how to feel, you can take before it all gets a bit numb. I’ll also admit this isn’t my usual viewing fare or would ever be a first choice. But it was a great film to sit and watch with my kids as they immediately engaged with the plight of the horse and it gave me ample opportunity to lament the horrors of war to them and impart some history not just of the war but of ploughing methods from a hundred years ago!

(2/5)